


Aubade

by ryusei



Category: Dragalia Lost (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Botany, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-07 15:21:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18413348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryusei/pseuds/ryusei
Summary: "I'm really into Botan–""You're into WHAT!?"Botan starts her day hearing her name come out of Tokugawa fucking Ieyasu's mouth, and ends it as the vice president of the National University of Hinomoto's newly established botany club.





	Aubade

**Author's Note:**

> I get the feeling Ezelith would be good friends with Botan.

09:00  
Botan is on her way to her first class of the day, when she passes the crowd perpetually surrounding the Prince.  
  
It is not a nickname. Prince Tokugawa Ieyasu of Hinomoto is currently reading law in his second year at the National University of Hinomoto. She's not even sure why he's on the freshman campus all the time. Normally, she'd ignore him, goons and all, and walk straight past without a second thought _except_ she catches the phrase:  
  
"I'm into Botan–"  
  
She whips around. A tall-ass flashy long-haired purple dude is not exactly hard to miss and she spots the beanpole Ieyasu quite easily. He is listening to something his laughing companion is saying. Botan shakes her head. Ieyasu's posse is not exactly small, and there are many conversation happening at once. She must have misheard.  
  
Then, Ieyasu's voice carries:  
  
"I'm really into Botan–"  
  
"You're into _WHAT!?_ "  
  
The chattering stops, and curious heads turn towards the fuchsia source of commotion. Ieyasu looks at her oddly.  
  
"Botany." He repeats slowly, then brightens up. "Why... are you interested too?  
  
Ieyasu reaches forward and takes both of her hands into his own. She looks down, uncomprehending. She can feel the piercing gazes of Ieyasu's procession burning into her back, though.  
  
"Uh." She says, intelligently. ... Ieyasu has really soft hands.  
  
When she doesn't respond, he visibly wilts. She's not sure why, but it's really sad. Like, a whole one hundred and eighty-five centimetres of sadness.  
  
"Sorry."  Says Ieyasu, sadly, withdrawing his hands. "... I guess not..."  
  
Botan feels distinctly like she just kicked a puppy. A really big puppy.  
  
"No. Uh. Botany's cool." She says.  
  
Ieyasu immediately straightens up again. It's kind of like how she would imagine the succulent on her windowsill would react when she finally remembers to water it again after about three months of drought. _Shit._ She needs to water it.  
  
"Really?" He says, hopefully.  
  
"Mmhmm." Agrees Botan, still thinking about her dying houseplant. She's kind of late for class, but whatever.  
  
"Great!" Ieyasu rummages around in his shoulder bag and hands her a roll of paper. "The botany club meets every Thursday from five to six, I hope to see you there!"  
  
He smiles winningly, then takes off. The crowd hurries after him.  
  
It's Thursday today.  
  
Staring at the flyer in her hand, Botan feels distinctly like she has been played.

.

10:00  
Botan gets roasted by the professor when she walks in thirty minutes late with a green tea frappuccino. She even bought one for her professor. Admittedly, it was a buy-one-get-one and she didn't want to turn down free stuff. So gift for her professor it is.  
  
And sure, if she hadn't gone to the Starbucks on the other side of the campus she would have only been five minutes late, but she figured if she was going to be late anyway she might as well be late-late.  
  
Botan does _not_ do things in half measures.  
  
... It also turns out that today's class was lab.  
  
Botan holds out the second frappuccino as some sort of appeasement.  
  
Professor Sazanka is _not_ impressed.  
  
She sends Botan out and scolds her for fifteen minutes, then lets her back into the lab. Botan is ordered to write an additional one-thousand characters for today's summary.  
  
When she asks if she can be excused because she bought Sazanka a frappuccino, her professor replies: "If you hadn't bought me a frappuccino it would have been two-thousand. You're lucky it was green tea flavoured."  
  
Botan starts to protest, but Sazanka cuts her down. "Besides, you didn't even buy it. They were buy-one-get-one today and I'm pretty sure you didn't know what to do with the second one, but didn't want to turn it down, so you just took it and handed it to me when it was convenient."  
  
Botan shuts up. _Guilty as charged. This is why Sazanka is a professor_ , thinks Botan.  
  
A professor who Botan doesn't recognise, snorts. He was observing lab for the whole of class (at least, for what she had been there for). The file he's carrying with him says he's Dr. A. (the rest is covered by a small, leather-bound schedule book) from what looks like the characters that make up the faculty of law.  
  
"Don't laugh at my Botan, Addis." Says Sazanka. Addis apologises to Sazanka.

.

12:30  
"He looks, like, loaded you know."  
  
Ezelith, the (self-proclaimed) 6.5k IQ exchange student from the prestigious University of Alberia, jabs her elbow into Botan's side aggressively when she recounts the events from this morning.  
  
Botan shuffles away from Ezelith. Ezelith shuffles back to close the distance between them.  
  
"Honestly though? Even though he looks nice, is rich, and basically royalty, he could still be kind of nasty. Be careful about that club meeting, Botan."  
  
Botan chews her noodles, too busy eating to respond.

.

18:30  
Botan is not good at being on time.  
  
... Which is to say, after her afternoon classes finished, she hopped on the train headed back home to pick up her plant, then back again to university so she would have some semblance of relevance to the botany club besides, you know, phonetic similarities with her name.  
  
The train breaks down halfway. By the time she makes it to school, the meeting is long over but... who knows, maybe the club is full of a bunch of nerds who like plants so much they'll talk about them until nightfall. She wouldn't mind hanging out with a group of people talking about the things they love. It's good for people to be passionate about things, she thinks.  
  
She also figured that if it was a botany club, they might be able to help her save her little succulent. And hopefully diagnose it with something other than chronic neglect. Okay maybe she was looking for a chance to offload it to someone who will actually look after it, but hey, at least she's looking.  
  
The greenhouse is a pain to find, even though it's, you know, made of glass and should have been obvious but whatever. She's here.  
  
Botan can't see any lights on inside. _Maybe they're already gone? It doesn't hurt to check, though._  
  
"Hello?"  
  
The greenhouse is huge. Huge, dark, and silent.  
  
She has no idea what anything in here is, much less what they are called. They're all green and have leaves okay. Therefore: Plant. P-L-A-N-T. It looks super cool, though.  
  
Botan ducks under a curtain of hanging tendrils, clutching the potted plant and is about to turn the corner when she hears sobbing. She pauses and peers around very carefully, from behind another large... plant.  
  
There, seated at the head of a long table, is a lone figure.  
  
... It's Ieyasu.  
  
He's crying really hard.  
  
Botan steps out, but he doesn't look up. She approaches him and places a tentative hand on his shoulder.  
  
"Hey uh. You okay, bud?"  
  
Ieyasu flinches. He glances at her. "... Oh. It's you."  
  
_What's that supposed to mean?_ "Yeah. It's me – Mario."  
  
Ieyasu buries his face back into his arms. "Just leave me alone."  
  
"Excuse me?" Botan puffs up, indignant, "You were the one who asked me to come to the botany club meeting."  
  
"There is no meeting. We're not even an official club yet. Not enough members" Sniffs Ieyasu. "... And nobody showed up." Ieyasu lowers his head, "... I knew they were laughing at me, you know? But I... just hoped–"  
  
"Well. I showed up." Says Botan. "Look – I even brought Mr Succer." She makes him look at the withered, newly christened Mr Succer. Yes, she came up with the name on the fly. No, she is not changing it.  
  
Ieyasu eyes her plant for a few moments, "... Take better care of him." He wipes his eyes and sits up. "May I?"  
  
"Yeah, sure." _Hell yeah! She's going to be free from the chains of responsibility!_  
  
Ieyasu reaches into his backpack and takes out a _knife_.  
  
... Botan is a little worried. _Maybe Ezelith was right._ She's getting ready to fight him, when Ieyasu starts slicing away at Mr Succer.  
  
_Never mind she changed her mind she loves being chained by moral responsibility to this little bundle of plant life._  
  
"Oi!" Botan snatches the pot back, "What are you doing to Mr Succer, you psycho?"  
  
"I'm not a psycho, I'm trying to save him! Look!" Ieyasu runs one hand through his hair, agitated, "Some of him looks like it's rotting, he's drying up near the left and he's generally _really_ not okay!"  
  
Botan is still suspicious. "... If Mr Succer dies, I'm indicting you."  
  
"... I'm not too worried." Retorts Ieyasu. "It's clear to anybody that the one who would be charged would be you, for gross negligence."  
  
He's right, but she's not going to let him know that.  
  
She reluctantly hands Mr Succer back to Ieyasu and watches as he shaves off the brown and slimy grey bits from the leaves.

.

19:00  
"So... what did you envision for the botany club anyway?" Botan asks, as she watches Ieyasu work in near darkness.  
  
"Just... a place for people who like plants to talk about them." Ieyasu sniffs, then starts crying again. _Oh no._ "The glasshouse in this campus is very lovely. It would be nice to appreciate it with more people."  
  
Botan whistles lowly. _Wow, this guy doesn't look it, but he's a huge sap._ "Well. Take me by the hand, plant man, and let's get this show on the road."  
  
"Er." Ieyasu hesitates, but doesn't make any move to get up. Botan rolls her eyes, grabs his wrist, and tries to haul him his feet. He resists.  
  
"I am a 'more people'" Says Botan pointedly. "Appreciate plants with me." She picks up Mr Succer and waves her other hand in the general direction of a plant. "Tell me about that."  
  
"... Which one?"  
  
"The... green one."  
  
His eyes are still really red, but it doesn't do much to lessen the intensity of the long-suffering look Ieyasu gives her. "... They're all green. They're _plants_."  
  
"Is that all you got?" Goads Botan, "Well, maybe that's why nobody showed up."  
  
Ieyasu scowls, and stands up.  
  
Then, he starts passive-aggressively naming and describing the proper skincare routine (or, as he calls it: _optimal growing conditions_ ) for every plant they can see in the dark of the greenhouse at night.  
  
The tendrils become wisteria, the big tree is actually a peony bush, and the only blooming flowers Botan saw, located at the entrance to the greenhouse (and the only ones she recognised), are the evergreen sasanqua camellias. He lists a whole bunch of other things, but Botan is distracted by how much more alive Ieyasu looks in the greenhouse right now, compared to how he had looked in the university courtyard this morning.  
  
When he's done, she nods once, then grabs his wrist. He doesn't allow himself to be pulled. "Where are you taking me?" He says suspiciously.  
  
"Huh?" Botan looks back at him expectantly. "We're going get this club registered, dummy."

.

20:30  
There is only one professor who reliably stays at the university long after classes have ended in the day. Legend has it that the head of the department actually lives on campus and has never been seen outside of the school grounds.  
  
"... Are you sure this is okay." States Ieyasu. "It's, like, nine."  
  
"Yeah, of course." Says Botan, offhand. "Who the hell goes to bed at nine?" She knocks loudly on the door.  
  
There is no response. Botan makes to knock again after a few seconds of silence, when a word thunders from behind the door.  
  
"Enter." Booms a voice.  
  
Professor Marishiten gazes at them expectantly, arms crossed, from behind her desk. "What do you want."  
  
"We are the botany club." Says Botan. "We'd like to be registered, please."  
  
Marishiten looks at them skeptically. "That's not my job. You know that right?" Ieyasu tries, unsuccessfully, to hide himself behind Botan.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"And... you're still asking me?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"... At this time of the night?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
"... This late into the term?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
Marishiten scrutinises them. "... If I say no?"  
  
"I'd ask you to reconsider" Says Botan. "This guy over here really likes plants and stuff. He even helped perform surgery on Mr Succer here."  
  
Botan places Mr Succer in all of his half-hacked glory on Marchiten's desk. Ieyasu is going to die from embarrassment.  
  
"That plant is dead." Replies Marishiten. "It's going to die. _Why are you showing this to me._ "  
  
"He's going to be okay." Insists Botan.  
  
"He's really not. I've seen a lot of plants in this lifetime, and that one over there does not have much time left on this earth." Marishiten uncrosses her arms and makes shooing motions. "Now _get out._ "

.

21:00  
They've been standing inside Marishiten's office, watching her work, listening to the sound of her pen scratching for half an hour.  
  
"... You really aren't going to let this go, are you?"  
  
"No." Replies Botan immediately.  
  
"I get it, I get it." Marishiten sighs. "Kids these days... I'll get your club through. Now go away. Leave the poor plant, though. I'll take care of it."  
  
As they leave, Marishiten examines the succulent on her desk. In all honesty, the boy didn't do a half-bad job at pruning.  
  
Maybe he will still stand a chance.

.

21:30  
"Hey." Says Ieyasu.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Back at the greenhouse."  
  
"Mmhm?"  
  
"... I was just reading the small card descriptions."  
  
"Uh?" _Okay?_  
  
"You know? The labels on every plant?" Lies Ieyasu, badly.  
  
"Yeah sure. You're welcome," Says Botan, reading between the lines and taking it for the thanks that it is, rather than at its asinine face value.  
  
_Why is Ieyasu so bad at being honest._ She literally just started talking to the guy today and she already knows she's not going to stop, and that he's going to be a pain in the ass to deal with in the future.

.

22:00  
"... Will you be my vice president?" Says Ieyasu, a little later down the very long footpath leading away from the campus.  
  
"Huh? Is this your weird way of proposing to me?" _Botan is too young to get married_ , "Sorry, I like you, but not enough to marry you right now. I don't put out on the first date, you know."  
  
"NO!" Exclaims Ieyasu, blushing all the way to his ears, "I'm asking if you want to be _the_ vice president!"  
  
Botan wants nothing to do with politics either. "No way. Is being a Prince not enough for you? Are you trying to gun for Prime Minister too?"  
  
"NO! I'm asking about the botany club!"  
  
Botan could leave him there, but... she's going to be difficult because Ieyasu was being annoying earlier. "Conquering Hinomoto one plant at a time or something?"  
  
Ieyasu gives up.  
  
("My answer is yes, by the way."  
  
"... Sorry. It's too late. The position is now closed to new applicants.")

.

22:30  
He tries walking her to the station, but she tells him to go home before he troubles his security detail she knows have been deployed to the university (but has never actually seen) any longer than he already has.  
  
"It's fine. He can walk you to the station."  
  
Botan freezes. _She knows that voice. She was yelled by it this morning._  
  
Sazanka steps out from behind the shadow of a street lamp.  
  
"He can walk you if he wants. We don't mind."  
  
Botan scratches her head. "... There has to be, like, some kind of rule in the university about... I dunno, this is misconduct on so many levels I don't even know where to begin. At least you teach in a different faculty?"  
  
Sazanka laughs. Addis walks out into the well-lit footpath ahead, waving sheepishly.  
  
"... Okay, this is definitely illegal." Says Botan, when they reach him. "Aren't you doing _law_?" Ieyasu looks away. "Aren't you a _professor_ of law?" Addis smiles widely.  
  
They walk to the station together. Botan asks if she still has to do the extra assignment. Sazanka says she does.

.

23:59  
In the middle of the night, Botan's eyes snap open.  
  
_What happened in the greenhouse... it was like a date, wasn't it. One-hundred per cent date-like. Not just date-like. That was totally a date._  
  
Botan lies awake, cogs in her head turning furiously for about ten minutes, before she gives up and rolls back to sleep. She'll deal with it when the dawn comes tomorrow.  
  
_I'm Botan, the Vice President of the Botany Club_ , she thinks, _I've got this._  
  


**END**

**Author's Note:**

> Extra: Storks
> 
> "Sazanka?" Ieyasu says in a small voice, clutching his bag.
> 
> "Yes?"
> 
> "... Um. Do you know what that girl's name was? I forgot to ask her and... I couldn't figure out a good time to bring it up." Ieyasu rambles, "And it seems like you know her so..."
> 
> "Ieyasu. My little plum. I love you, but," Begins Sazanka, sternly, "I need to have a word with you about your technique."
> 
> "Technique?"
> 
> "Or lack-thereof." Explains Addis.
> 
> "... For what?" Poor boy has no idea what he is doing, why he is doing it, or what he has done.
> 
> "On the path to matrimony and possibly procreation, not necessarily in that order."
> 
> Sazanka raises her voice "I was thinking less about dating and... advanced dating, and more about basic social skills like asking someone for their name. Don't listen to Addis."
> 
> "Okay." Agrees Ieyasu, obediently. "What does procreation have to do with anything though?"
> 
> Sazanka tries to change the subject, but Addis interrupts. "Ieyasu. Where do babies come from?"
> 
> "Oh, easy." Laughs Ieyasu. "Babies come from storks. Where else?"
> 
> There is a short pause, where nobody says anything.
> 
> "Very funny." Says Addis.
> 
> "How so?"
> 
> Addis brakes very suddenly and twists around in his driver's seat to look at Ieyasu. Ieyasu looks back, confused. Addis whips his head over to Sazanka, the woman who was singlehandedly in charge of Ieyasu's education for every one of his nineteen years prior to his entry at the National University. Sazanka pretends she doesn't notice and looks out of the window.
> 
> "... Please tell me you're joking." Addis tries again. "Ieyasu. Pretend you're being graded. Where do babies come from."
> 
> "... Storks."
> 
> Ieyasu is not joking.
> 
> "Oh my fucking god."
> 
>  
> 
> END


End file.
